Virbhadra ducks questioning, threatens journalists

An angry Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday threatened to break the cameras of mediapersons on being questioned about allegations of corruption against him.

"I will break your cameras. Don't you have any other work to do?" he retorted when reporters questioned him about graft allegations.

The incident happened at Ani in Kullu district last evening when some mediapersons sought his reaction to the fresh charges levelled against him by the BJP.

Dismissing the charges against him as "baseless", he said, "I will deal with all these issues after the election on November 4".

The former Himachal Pradesh chief minister had on Tuesday brushed aside allegations by BJP and others of income tax evasion, money-laundering and forgery as "false and fabricated" and had threatened action against those behind the "malicious" campaign ahead of Himachal assembly polls.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley had alleged that Singh had altered his income tax account books from 2008 onwards to show a forged, back-dated contract and a highly inflated income of around Rs 6.5 crore.

Singh had also come under the scanner following allegations that he had received payments from a steel company which had come to light after raids were conducted on the firm in 2010.

Lashing out at Jaitley for making the allegations, Singh had said the "malicious" campaign against him is being carried out to divert his attention from the poll campaign and create confusion in the minds of voters.